Romney and Perry Clash, Drawing Lines in G.O.P. Sand

Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney listened as Rick Perry, right, spoke Wednesday in his first Republican presidential debate.Credit
Monica Almeida/The New York Times

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The fight for the Republican presidential nomination began narrowing into an intense and ideological battle at a debate here Wednesday night, with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Mitt Romney sharply clashing over Social Security, health care and each other’s long-term prospect against President Obama.

A series of spirited exchanges between the two men, which revealed differences in substance and style, offered the first extensive look into the months-long contest ahead. They traded attacks on each other’s job creation records and qualifications to be president, overshadowing their opponents in the crowded Republican field.

Mr. Perry doubled down on his view of Social Security, assailing it as a “monstrous lie,” and he questioned scientists’ assertions that climate change has been caused by human activity. Mr. Romney said that Social Security should be protected and suggested that Mr. Perry’s positions would make it difficult for the Republican Party to appeal to a broad base of voters needed to win the White House.

“Maybe it’s time to have some provocative language in this country,” said Mr. Perry, who spent much of his time in his first presidential debate defending his Texas record and a litany of positions in his book, “Fed Up!”

On the eve of the president’s economic speech to a joint session of Congress, the debate here at the Ronald Reagan Museum and Library focused far more on the distinctions among the Republican candidates than on Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy. The entire Republican field united around the notion of limiting Mr. Obama to a single term, but differed in proposing solutions to the ailing economy.

Mr. Perry attacked Mr. Romney’s record of creating jobs in Massachusetts and his championing of health care legislation when he was governor. Mr. Romney, in turn, cast Mr. Perry as a career politician.

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The candidates, in the final moment before the debate began.Credit
Monica Almeida/The New York Times

“Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt,” Mr. Perry said, referring to the former Democratic governor who ran for president in 1988.

“Well, as a matter of fact,” Mr. Romney replied, “George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor.”

The crowd of Republicans burst into laughter.

But as the exchanges intensified, one of the candidates, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, chastised the moderators of the debate, from NBC and Politico, and said they were trying to stoke divisions among Republicans in a way he said would help Mr. Obama.

Mr. Romney argued that Mr. Perry, who has spent much of his life in government, lacked the experience in private industry needed to turn the economy around. And seeking to undercut what has been Mr. Perry’s main claim in advancing his candidacy — his record as governor — Mr. Romney argued that Mr. Perry had benefited from institutional advantages, ranging from a Republican state legislature and state Supreme Court to the economic benefits of having vast deposits of gas and oil.

“Those are wonderful things, but Governor Perry doesn’t believe that he created those things,” Mr. Romney said. “If he tried to say that, well, it would be like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet.”

The exchanges quickly moved from the economy to health care. The candidates were asked to register their opinions on the health care plan that Mr. Romney signed into law in Massachusetts.

Mr. Romney sought to defend the health care law, which was a precursor to the federal plan signed into law by Mr. Obama, but said it was intended for his state only. If elected, he said, he will move to repeal the Obama administration’s law as soon as he takes office.

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a former governor of Utah who stepped down as the ambassador to China in the Obama administration, sought to insert himself into the exchange and pointed out that Utah under his stewardship led all states across the country in creating new jobs. Mr. Huntsman assailed the hard-line posture Mr. Romney has taken toward China.

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“Mitt,” he said, “now is not the time, in a recession, to enter a trade war.”

The debate here at the Reagan Library revolved to a large degree around Mr. Perry, whose candidacy has dramatically changed the contour of the race.

Mr. Perry defended his record of overseeing the execution of 234 inmates in Texas. When asked by one of the moderators, Brian Williams of NBC News, if he had lost sleep over the decision, Mr. Perry replied, “No, sir, I’ve never struggled with that at all.”

The invited audience, made up of supporters of the candidates and patrons of the library, broke out into applause when Mr. Williams noted again that 234 people had been executed.

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The Republican Party symbol on the Reagan museum grounds.Credit
Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who had hoped that her victory in the Iowa straw poll last month would place her among the top tier of candidates, struggled to break through during the exchanges. She, along with former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Herman Cain, a businessman, were asked far fewer questions than Mr. Romney and Mr. Perry.

Mr. Huntsman, apparently alone on the stage, argued that Republicans were endangering their prospects in the general election by attacking the theory of global warming.

“In order for the Republican Party to win,” Mr. Huntsman said, “we can’t run from science.”

Mr. Perry, one of the strongest skeptics of global warming on the stage, strongly stood by his views and said it was a mistake to adopt policies to deal with a problem that he said was not proven. He invoked the skepticism that was directed at Galileo. “Galileo got outvoted for a spell,” he said.

“The science is not settled on this,” Mr. Perry said. “The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet, to me, is just nonsense.”

Representative Ron Paul of Texas aggressively challenged Mr. Perry on several fronts, including for pushing through an executive order requiring young girls to have an inoculation against a sexually transmitted disease, HPV, before reversing course.

“This is not good medicine, I do not believe,” he said. “It’s not good social policy. And therefore, I think this is very bad to do this. But one of the worst parts about that was the way it was done.”

Correction: September 9, 2011

An article on Thursday about the spirited exchanges between Mitt Romney and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas during a Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night quoted incorrectly in some editions from comments Mr. Romney made about jobs. Responding to Mr. Perry’s criticism that he had a poor record of creating jobs while he was governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney said, “George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor.” He did not say “three times faster.”

Ashley Parker contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on September 8, 2011, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Perry and Romney Joust Over Direction of G.O.P. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe